VivirLatino

Everyone knows that Semana Santa — Holy Week, celebrated this week — is a holiday that is commemorated with some very unique practices throughout the Spanish-speaking world (or wherever Spaniards have treaded; the Philippines actually has one of the most shocking displays of self-flagellation in honor of Semana Santa in the world).

We’ve all seen imagery of the Via Crucis, but have you ever seen J.C. up close and personal, hanging on a cross in a working class neighborhood? The people of Mexico City have, as each year the Iztapalapa neighborhood puts on a spectacle to rival any other. The excellent Mexico City blog Chilanga Banda has a post to bring the unfamiliar up to speed:

The representation of the Passion of Christ has been done in Iztapalapa for over a century and a half to fulfill a promise made by the inhabitants of the area to el Señor de la Cuevita, as a gesture of gratitude for having erradicated a deadly cholera that struck the population in 1833.

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